Underneath it all, “Skin of Evil” is a pretty straightforward episode. Again, I don’t know if authorial intent can be used to condemn a story that plays well, especially when it’s presaging internet phenomena in the earliest days of the Internet. Literally, the late eighties and early nineties were the years that the Internet was transitioning from research/military networks to public, commercial networks.

And Derek was right about the IRC thing. I don’t know why I thought it was “IIRC” and not “IRC.” Also, the Charles Bronson films I was thinking of were the “Death Wish” series. Marina Sirtis was in the third one. I mentioned “The Executioner” or something which is a book series. The mix-up was because my dad loves both.

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.

If you know me, you know I’ve been working on a game called Dead Parents Dungeon. I’ve been looking for a new Thursday project since 17 to 01 wrapped (I don’t produce daily content here, but that is my goal). I considered a 17 to 01 YouTube series, a Chrome extension development blog, a podcast/journal for a new roleplaying game with the guys, and a second 17 to 01-esque podcast with other folks. But then I realized I’ve been working on DPD for a while and I need to get it done. In fact, it’d be shitty of me not to work on and bring it to completion. Besides, I try to keep random projects for Wednesdays and I might use that to float some of those other ideas.

The idea behind Dead Parents Dungeon (DPD) is that a single deck of cards can accommodate 1-5 players who control Adventurers. The Adventurers will complete dungeons and use the Scars & Silver they earn from the dungeon to have kids who become Adventurers. The cycle repeats until a player’s Adventurers retires and the player who reaches ten points of Retirement first wins.

We largely gloss over the conflation of junkies with addicts, the characterization of the Onarian culture, Frakes’ electrocuted acting, and the Picard/Crusher Prime Directive Elevator Ride of Logic-Bro Condescension. So much to unpack and we focused on the Brekkian’s slit-condom chic.

Also, the guy from Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman was Horace, not Lowell. Don’t wanna get the Quinnhead fandom mad at me.

“Symbiosis” is good for it’s time, but it feels a bit lacking. Deep Space Nine–coin drop–covered this all pretty well in “The Wire.” Were there other drug episodes in Star Trek that cover this better?

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.

Magic: the Gathering is widgety. Its got tokens and counters and double-faced cards and exile zones and emblems and all kinds of things. What I was thinking of was a simpler way to play. If two folks somewhere that’s not traditionally built to accommodate Magic–like an airport or a coffee shop–they could play a game with nothing more than the cards they had on hand.

Construction rules would be generic: 60-card decks with banned and restricted cards from the Vintage banned and restricted list.

It would have to remove counters and tokens, including life counters. All permanents would be cards. No extra dice or tapped pennies; just actual cards.

Finally, I think that there needs to be a hard cap on permanents, to respect the limitations of table space in some places. While somewhere might support more, a one-size-fits-all approach gives players some ideas of their limitations when building decks. Maybe twelve or so.

I think there’s a lot of potential here and plenty of interest. I’d love to formalize the rules and test them, but I don’t think I’ll get an opportunity any time soon. If there’s anything I’ve missed, lemme know.

Our talk about tropes, blocking, and narrative foibles is all pretty pedestrian for an extraordinary episode. Also Beverly Crusher’s credit score.

We do gloss over the dangers of shortsighted capitalism and militarism that underlie this whole thing. We also skip the arbitrary disdain the audience is supposed to feel about the folks of Minos dealing arms to both sides in a war. Am I supposed to be outraged that they’re not taking sides in a war? I mean, I watch this show about the Prime Directive…

Also, we’ve been gone for a while because of Things. We’re back on top of stuff and I’m going to be putting some time aside for solo sessions in the near future for schedule padding.

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.